sterling or us$

we are travelling to Bangkok and Koh Samui in October are are wondering which is the best currency to take, Sterling travellers cheques or Us$. I know sterling is normally recommended however with the us$ being so strong at the moment would be be better taking us$ cheques?

sterling or us$

US $ is WEAK in Thailand at the moment. Take sterling, either travellers cheques if you must, but some sterling cash to change at the airport, then a Debit card (not credit - Nationbwide FlexAccount is best, no fees, no commission, better rate of exchange, no brainer!) to get more cash as you go along. The rates are much better in Thailand. If you get $ TCs in UK then change into baht in Thailand you will be paying two lots of commission.

sterling or us$

thanks for your reply however we are still confused! The us$ may be weak in Thailand but is very strong in the UK thats why we are unsure as to which currency chqs to take as from what we can make out we will benefit changing sterling to us chqs and then to thai baht when in thailand. You dont get charged commission to get us$ chqs but you do for sterling, typically 3%, i know we will get charged on either to change to thai baht. We dont have a Nationwide account and therefore wont use a debit card abroad as they charge extortionate charges and lower the rates!! Again any help would be appriecated.

The US$ is weak in the UK that is why you get more dollars to the £.

Quite honestly though unless you are talking about huge amounts of money the difference is small.

I calculate on current rates here and taking into account the conversion of sterling to dollars in the UK,you will get 4 bahts more by exchanging £1 compared to 1$.Take into account the commission on the sterling cheques and you will be better of in dollars.

As already pointed out a charge free debit card like Nationwide is a simpler and more convenient method of obtaining funds here.

As I said in my previous post there is no commission, no fees and you get a HIGHER rate of exchange with a Nationwide FlexAcoount Debit Card when you draw cash from an ATM in any country abroad. In March I was offered 61 baht to the £ ';commission free'; in the UK before we went. I got 69 baht to the £ on my Nationwide Debit Card.

It is worth opening a FlexAccount for this. You even get 4% interest on your money while you are waiting to draw on it.

Even though you can get about $2 to the £ at home, the $ has fallen from about 36 baht to the $ to 30 baht to the $ during the past year with rumours it might fall even further. Currently it has recovered to about 32.6. Whereas for sterling the current rate is still about 67.5 baht to the £.

So if you changed £1000 into $ travellers cheques, you would get about $2000. If the rates stay the same as they are between now and when you go, when you change the TCs in Thailand (and there WILL be commission on that!) you will get about 65,200 baht ($2000 x 32.6). If you drew £1000 of baht from an ATM you would get about 67,450baht (£1000 x 67.45) .